


an Archives cat-astrophe!

by disasterdrow



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Cat, Everybody Lives, Fluff, Gen, No Angst, One Shot, What-If, thats it thats the fic, they adopt a cat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:16:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26824270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/disasterdrow/pseuds/disasterdrow
Summary: What if instead of letting a dog into the archives on the first day, Martin let in a cat?Based on this tumblr post by radiosandrecordings: https://radiosandrecordings.tumblr.com/post/631012943387115520/this-is-such-a-minor-thing-but-ive-convinced
Relationships: Martin Blackwood & Sasha James & Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist & Tim Stoker
Comments: 4
Kudos: 129





	an Archives cat-astrophe!

**Author's Note:**

> This is so daft n self indulgent, i know. I am gonna finish go and catch a falling star, i promise, but i saw this post n had to write it. Hope you enjoy!!  
> Thanks as always to K, my beta and best friend.

“... I haven't quit smoking, but I do find I take a lot more taxis now, if I find myself out too late. Statement ends.” Jon pressed the stop button on the laptop, but as he was saving the file and titling it with the statement number, a scratch at the door startled him. He paused, listening. Another scratch, and a faint, rusty, meow. 

He stood up and crossed the room, opening the door. A tiny, scruffy cat pushed its way through the gap, rubbing at his ankles. He leaned down to pet it, brushing a hand through its damp fur. It was an untidy tabby, looking like it had been in rather more fights than were healthy, thin and uncollared. “How did you get in here, beautiful?” The cat didn’t answer, rubbing its face against his hand for the attention.

“You’d better stay in my office so you don't get into the documents, huh?” He pushed the door shut, careful of its tail, and returned to his chair to record another statement. The cat followed him, jumping onto his lap and settling in, kneading against his legs and curling up into a circle, tail tucked in. He cooed, “Oh, you want to be up here with me? Who’s a gorgeous lady, huh?” She purred up at him, contented, and he couldn't help a smile, more relaxed than he'd been all morning, but glad his office door was securely shut.

He started a new recording on the laptop, petting the cat with his other hand. “Statement of Joshua Gillespie,” he said, speaking slightly louder over the now-audible purring of the cat.

“... Statement ends.” he finished, saving the recording, then clicking on the file to play it. If the cat purring was too loud, he would need to rerecord it. 

Before he could get it to play, there was a tentative knock at the door. Without waiting for an answer, the door opened halfway and a man leaned around it, not anyone Jon recognised from Research, but familiar enough that they might have met. “Hey, sorry, you haven't seen a cat, have you? Tabby cat, one torn ear?”

Jon indicated the now sleeping ball of fur on his lap, blushing a little at having been caught. “You mean this cat? Is she yours?” Oh lord, there was cat fur on his tie. How unprofessional!

“Oh, thank goodness,” said the man, stepping fully into the room, leaving the door ajar behind him. “I thought she might have gotten into document storage. No, she's not mine, she just slipped in past me as i was coming into the archives this morning. I think she’s a stray.” The man was taller than him, Jon noted, and he was wearing a cable knit sweater in a warm yellow. It looked soft.

“Why were you coming into the archives?” said Jon, a little more severely than he intended, in order to cover for his awkwardness. There was still a  _ cat asleep on his lap, _ for goodness sake.

“Oh! Uh, I- I work here! Mr Bouchard transferred me from the library.”

Jon raised an eyebrow, more amused than annoyed. Another assistant couldn't hurt, could it? “A little warning might have been nice, but i suppose I'll take that up with him. I’m Jonathan Sims, Head Archivist.” 

“Martin. Blackwood. Archival assistant, I suppose.” He gestured to the sleeping cat. “I should probably take her to the shelter.” 

“Yes,” said Jon regretfully, petting her. “You probably should. How are you going to keep hold of her?”

“Oh,” said the man, pulling off the sweater, “I could wrap her in this?” Jon nodded and the man approached him quietly, leaning towards the cat …

\- who was apparently not asleep, and leapt off Jons lap, leaving claw marks gouged into his legs, and vanished out of the still open door like a streak of muddy brown lightning. 

“The documents!” said Jon and Martin together. They exchanged an amused glance. 

“I suppose I'd better help you look,” said Jon wryly. 

***

Sasha didn't mean to be fifteen minutes late on her first day of work, really she didn't. But she had slept through her alarm, and then the milk in the fridge had been off, and then there were unplanned maintenance works on her usual tube line and really it was a miracle that she was only fifteen minutes late and not a whole hour. She pushed open the door to the archives, but the assistants bullpen was empty. Odd. She had never known Jon to be late and Tim would usually let her know if he was going to be off - especially on their first day down here.

She walked further into the room, and heard muffled voices coming from document storage. Looking in, she saw Tim and a man she vaguely recognised from the library standing over Jon, who was lying flat on his stomach and peeking under a shelf of precariously stacked boxes of files. Jon was holding a yellow sweater and calling “Pspspspspsps! Come on, kitty! Come here!” Tim was trying to stifle laughter, but he was also holding an empty file box, ready to put the cat in. The other man was filming the whole thing on Tim’s phone. 

As she watched, Jon backed up slowly and the saddest, most ragged cat she had ever seen in her life crept out from under the shelf. Jon swept her up in the sweater, depositing the whole thing in Tim’s file box, and Tim shut the lid before it could escape. A pitiful yowl came from inside, and the other man stopped recording. 

Jon turned to face her. “Ah, Sasha. Good morning.” He had dust in his hair and cat fur on his once neatly pressed trousers, but he was smiling. “Want to help us bring this cat to the shelter down the road?” 

“Why not?” she said. “Uh, who’s-” 

“Martin,” offered the unfamiliar man. “I work here now.” 

“Archive team field trip!” said Tim.

***

“No microchip,” said the shelter employee. “Whoever this little lady belonged to, they didn’t get her tagged. I would guess she’s been feral a while. We can put her up for adoption, but an adult cat as torn up as this doesn't have a great chance of finding a home, I'm afraid.” 

Jon looked at the cat sadly. She was cleaner now, and she had beautiful stripes under the grime, but one ear was badly torn and she had other scars besides.

“What if we kept her?” asked Martin suddenly. The others looked at him in surprise. “As an archives pet? Cats are relatively clean, we could keep her away from the files - I could take her home at night.” 

Sasha looked a little dubious, but one glance at how Jon and Tim had lit up and she conceded. “That’s.. not a terrible idea, actually. But how would we convince Elias to let us?”

“I’ll tell him she’s an emotional support animal,” said Martin. “What's he gonna do, say no? He'd look like a jerk. He barely even goes down to the Archives, no one does.” 

Jon turned to the shelter employee again. “Can you give us directions to a good vet, to get her microchipped?”

***

Half an hour later, the archival staff were safely back at work. The cat had a box, some food and water, and a name - Sasha Jr, Tim’s suggestion. She also had a collar, litterbox, and a frankly ridiculous number of cat toys. 

“What?” said Jon, picking up another catnip mouse, “She needs enrichment! Otherwise she might get bored and damage archive property!”

“Sure,” said Tim. “Archive property, that’s what you're worried about.” He picked up a feather on a string, and Junior chased it along the floor. “I guess we have a cat now.” 

“That doesn’t give you all an excuse not to work,” said Jon. “Sasha, can you make a start on these shelves here? Tim, Martin, I have some follow up for you to do on #9981122, the Gillespie statement.” 

The assistants settled down to their work, and Junior lost interest in the feather, curling up in her box on top of Martin’s sweater. 


End file.
